TNAG-2743-FCO40-3958-Visits-by-Commonwealth-officials--ministers-and-public-figur-1993 — Page 144

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CONFIDENTIAL

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(a) the Chinese side should have no difficulty

with our severance of formal governmental

links with the Commonwealth in or before

1997;

(b)

any

continued links after 1997 with the

as proposed in paragraph

be

Commonwealth

6 (a) (c)

would

in

informal

nature and would not

and

non-governmental

create any obligations or commitments for the

future HKSAR;

(c)

흐

(d)

consulting

maintenance

the

Chinese side

on the

of any remaining informal links

with the Commonwealth might force them to

take a totally negative position on the

matter, thus putting our target of

maintaining those links at risk; and

if the Chinese side do raise queries without

being consulted, we can explain that the

continued links with the Commonwealth after

1997 will not be different from those with

other

non-governmental organisations or

individual countries.

10.

However, we may consider approaching the Chinese

exceptionally if the

retention

link is particularly sensitive.

such a case may prevent

public statements.

them

or severance of a certain

Involving the Chinese in

from making any unhelpful

CONFIDENTIAL

機密